From the palace to the pilot seat! King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has been flying as a licensed pilot for decades. On July 2, the Dutch Royal House commemorated the anniversary of the day His Majesty obtained his pilot's license with a carousel of pictures of the royal aviator.
"✈️ The King is a passionate aviator. He received his pilot's license today - exactly 40 years ago. On July 2, 1985 King Willem-Alexander obtained his private pilot second class license," the Royal House wrote alongside the post (translated to English).
Among the pictures included was one from the King's first solo flight, which featured a "special passenger"—his father, Prince Claus! The Royal House noted in the caption that Willem-Alexander "continued his flying education and obtained, among other things, the major military certificate in 1994 and his 'ATPL' in 2001 for civil aviation," and, as the Prince of Orange, "flew some time in Kenya volunteering for AMREF and Kenya Wildlife Service."
The 58-year-old monarch is "still active as a guest pilot" with KLM and "flies occasionally as a co-pilot in the Dutch government aircraft," which he did last month to Prague for his and Queen Maxima's state visit to the Czech Republic.
After getting his private pilot’s license in 1985, Willem-Alexander obtained his commercial pilot’s license (with an instrument rating) in 1987. Then in 1989, the King obtained a supplementary license to fly multi-engine jet aircraft and in 2001, he earned his airline transport pilot license. King Willem-Alexander “trained to fly the Boeing 737” in mid-2017, and obtained a license in June of 2017, “allowing him to continue flying as a guest pilot with KLM.”
Queen Maxima's husband has previously told De Telegraaf (via the BBC) that he finds “flying simply fantastic.” Revealing his “real motive for training on the 737,” the King admitted that it “seemed nice to fly to other destinations one day, with more passengers and bigger distances.”
Flying admittedly relaxes the monarch. King Willem-Alexander has said (via The Irish Times ), “For me the most important thing is that I have a hobby for which I need to concentrate completely. You have an airplane, passengers and a crew. You carry responsibility for that. You cannot take your problems from the ground with you in the sky. You can for a brief moment disconnect and concentrate on something else. That is the biggest relaxation of flying to me.”